I was like 10 when Probert left the Wings, so I can hardly remember him as a Wing, unless I watch old fight tapes of him. Also, Kocur was past his prime during his second stint with the Wings. I just chose players with the most longevity in my time.

Not my fault I'm not in my 30's like some other posters.

Same. Wouldn't make sense for me to put players down that I never even saw play live.

I was a Booter fan too. He was the most entertaining Griffin when he was there.

Funny story, I went to a Bulldogs-Griffins game in 2004-05 season, in Hamilton. During warm ups, I pointed out Bootland to a friend, who's a Leaf fan, and told him, "Watch Bootland, that guy always is always doing something". Within the first couple minutes of the game, Bootland got a double minor. While he was skating to the penalty box my friend said, "Your right, that didn't take long".

You would have hated Primeau when he was with the Wings -- absolutely infuriating. Think Lang, only more whiny.He didn't start playing to his potential until with Phily.

Agreed, I yelled "Yes!" when I first heard Primeau, and Coffey, was traded for Shanahan.

I still lol when I think about Primeau getting into a fight with Probert at a practice one time.

This obviously excludes legends that I never had any chance to see play due to age constraints:

1) Yzerman, the reason I started to follow hockey in the first place, a truly great hockey player and more importantly a great human being.
2) McCarty, guy played with so much passion and grit, how can you not like him, he bled and drew blood for his team like no other.
3) Lidstrom, excellence personified, I can count on one hand the number of times I saw him make a bad or questionsble play.
4) Shanahan, I was so pumped when we traded Primeau's sorry hide for him, and he did not disappoint one bit.
5) Datsyuk, an absolute magician, if they ever thought of renaimg trophies they should rename the Selke after him.
6) Konstantinov, what a force he was, tragically cut short in his prime, is symbolic of the values of the Ilitch family and the Red Wings organization.
7) Zetterberg, arguably the hardest working player of his generation, nobody thought he could be this good (except maybe Hakan Andersson)
8) Filppula, probably will get flamed for this, but he is my favorite current Red Wing for reasons I will gladly explain but should not have to justify, can't leave him off my list
9) Kozlov, tough little guy, clutch in the playoffs, and my favorite image from the Avs rivalry after the Turtle is Kozzie sidestepping Foote and slamming his ugly mug into the glass
10) Osgood, one of the most underrated goalies IMO, all he has done is win 3 Stanley Cups, 2 as a starter, 389 wins, 74 playoff wins, and all he gets is criticism and second-guessing.

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." -- The Doctor

Fixed it for you =). On another note, I it makes my stomach hurt knowing that we passed up on Jagr for him, although without Keith we would have never gotten Shanny. Still that and the Adam Oates trade really grind my gears. Think about all the cup teams only replacing Shanny with Jagr, Oates, and retaining Coffey...

1. Steve Yzerman (My son's middle name is Yzerman)
2. Henrik Zetterberg (Next great Wings captain)
3. Nicklas Lidstrom (the ultimate good guy)
4. Chris Osgood
5. Sergei Fedorov (When he wanted to win, he was unstoppable)
6. Brendan Shanahan
7. Curtis Joseph (Never got a fair chance in Detroit)
8. Paul Coffey (Took his defensive game to a new level with the Wings)
9. Luc Robitalle
10. Marian Hossa (Yeah I know, but if the Wings win Game 7, I would have gotten a Hossa jersey with the Stanley Cup patch to wear around Pittsburgh)

You would have hated Primeau when he was with the Wings -- absolutely infuriating. Think Lang, only more whiny.He didn't start playing to his potential until with Phily.

Agreed.

Primeau wanted to play center, but not the 3rd line (mind you we had Stevie, and Sergei)...Then he didn't like the idea of playing wing on the 2nd line...Off to Hartford he went

Both of these. Primeau is/was a s***head. Also, my aforementioned love for Paul Coffey as a youngster made me hate Primeau that much more. In my eyes, it was always Primeau's fault that Coffey went with him.

We did get Shanny out of the deal, though, so we can thank Primeau for that.

Some of these guys played when I was like 10 years old - but that is the age of heroes is it not?

Are you kidding? Block you? And miss watching you stumble around the forum looking for an argument like a dog sniffing butts? It would be like turning off a bad episode of Jerry Springer. You know you shouldn't be watching, but you just... can't... help... it...